Medals posthumously awarded to a 13-year-old boy who was one of the youngest victims of the First World War have sold for £1,000 at auction.

Sydney Cawsey died alongside his father John, 39, after their Merchant Navy vessel was shelled on March 12, 1917.

The Devon teenager worked as a cook on a 172 tonne wooden schooner called the S.V. Reward, which was mastered by his father John Carter Cawsey.

Medals: The medals awarded posthumously to Sydney Cawsey have sold to an anonymous telephone bidder for £1,000

The father and son were
part of a crew transporting troops and coal from Falmouth in Devon to
Guernsey when they came under heavy fire from a a German UC-72
submarine.

Sydney
received the British War Medal and Mercantile Marine War Medal
posthumously, becoming one of the youngest ever recipients of the
awards.

Yesterday the
pair of medals sold to an anonymous telephone bidder for £1,000 at an
auction in Hazel Grove, Cheshire - beating its estimated sale price of
between £600 and £800.

Valour: Sydney Cawsey, seen left with his older brother Jack, was one of the youngest victims of the First World War

Medals
Expert Andrew McCann, from Maxwells Auctioneers, who handled the sale,
said: 'It really was quite a special piece because of the fascinating
back story and I think that is what generated the interest.

'It is very rare to get this much for such normal medals that would have been widely dished out among ordinary seamen.

'They don't really tell the full story of the boy's bravery.

'The
boys age meant there was a lot of interest in the lot and they
eventually went to a private collector who bid by telephone,' he added.

Sydney
was among 10 other boys aged under 15 who served in the Merchant Navy
during the Great War, and one of only a handful who were killed in
action.

His father gained the Torpedo Badge medal, which he was posthumously awarded for his service on a different vessel.

Figures show 14,287 British merchant navy sailors died during World War One.

The deadly German UC-72 submarine downed 38 ships during the war using a deadly combination of torpedoes and mines.

Mr McCann added: 'Only a handful of boys Sydney's age would have served in the Merchant Navy.

'There has been some confusion over his age, because his descendants who gave us the lot believed him to be 15.